News of Plaxico Burress‘ plight has been so big in the New York area that even Jets quarterback Brett Favre weighed in on it Wednesday.

Asked about the effect off-the-field distractions can have on a team, Favre paid tribute to his in-state neighbors and the defending world champion Giants.

“They have managed to deal with it exceptionally well,” Favre said. “This time last year, not too many people gave the Giants a chance, nor did they really care what was going on, on or off the field. That has changed. That has changed because of their success. I give coach [Tom] Coughlin a lot of credit. He has handled it very well. The guys that they have on that team have handled it very well. They have managed to just go out and focus on the job at hand.

“It is nice to not have to deal with issues. I’m not saying that you can’t have success dealing with issues, because the Giants are proving that you can. It’s part of it. You never know when it’s going to come and how it will come, whether it be on-the-field or off-the-field issues. I speak individually for players, in order to play a long time you have to have a lot of luck on the field, obviously. Fall into the right place, whatever. You also have to be smart off the field and be able to manage your success as well as failure if you want to play a long time.”

Something Burress hasn’t done and might not get the chance to learn to do.

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